The form is widely used in hyphenated compounds: post-natal, of the period after childbirth; post-operative, the period following a surgical operation; post-war, occurring or existing after a war, especially World War Two (compare post-bellum, from Latin bellum, war, most commonly used in connection with the American Civil War); post-dated, a document or event containing a date later than the actual one; post-industrial, relating to an economy which no longer relies on heavy industry.

It appears in several terms that refer to a revised view of a subject following some crucial change in circumstances or opinion; it can suggest either dependence on what went before or revolt against it: postmodernism, a range of experimental tendencies in art, architecture, the media, and criticism since the 1950s, a departure from modernism; post-structuralism, a set of influential cultural theories that rejected much of structuralism on the grounds that meaning is ultimately always indeterminate; post-feminism, a cultural theory that moves beyond or rejects some of the ideas of feminism as out of date.

Though most recent terms are hyphenated, older ones generally are not: posthumous (Latin postumus, last, respelled by association with humus, ground), occurring after the death of the originator; postscript (Latin scribere, write), an additional remark at the end of a letter; posthypnotic, of ideas or instructions given to a subject under hypnosis that are intended to affect behaviour after the hypnotic trance ends; postlude, a concluding piece of music or a written or spoken epilogue.